CV-19 Grantmaking strategic planning analytics

Delaware Valley Region

An atlas of COVID-19 era need and philanthropic response.

June, 2020.



This report provides strategic planning intelligence to philanthropies making placed-based investments in the wake of COVID-19. The goal is to understand where the supply of resources are aligned with the demand for those resources, and where they are not. Philanthropies can then use this intelligence to plan future investments.

This report is part of a larger effort to chronicle philanthropic efforts to battle COVID-19 in the Delaware Valley Region.

Organizations in The Delaware Valley applied for 2292 grants. These grants totalled $12,725,360.

The organizational mission that saw the most funding in the region, was Arts and Culture, which received $3,935,949. 29% of regional Census tracts were awarded funding.

The next section provides additional grantmaking analytics.1 Section 2 visualizes a series of strategic planning overlay maps intended to help philanthropies working in the region to identify areas where need currently outweighs grant resources. The remaining sections include additional analytics. Worth noting is the Employment section, which visualizes the geography of COVID-related unemployment.

1. Grantmaking

1.1 Which organizational missions received the most funding?

1.2 Where were grants awarded?

1.3 Where were grants awarded by organizational mission?

2. Strategic Planning Overlays

The goal of these map overlays is to help stakeholders understand if resources are being allocated where they are needed most. Philanthropies should consider targeting future investment in places where need exceeds grantmaking.

Housing instability and social vulnerability indices define the geography of need in the region. Housing instability is a composite that describes the number of renters, the number of renters paying more than 30% of their income on rent (ie. ‘rent burdened’), and the current tract-level unemployment rate.2

Social vulnerability is a composite of rent burdened households, single-parent households, tract-level poverty rate, percent receiving SNAP benefits, and percent without health insurance. Below, need and grantmaking are visualized side-by-side and with cartographic overlays. Again, these overlays highlight areas where more investment may be needed.

These are relative measures for the region only, which received $12,725,360 across 2292 grants. The grants visualized below have been georeferenced to the service area.

2.1 Housing instability & grantmaking maps

2.2 Housing instability & grantmaking overlay

Census tracts visualized in darker blue, are those where relative housing instability is greater than relative grantmaking. Shades of white are those where housing instability and grantmaking are properly aligned. Darker shades of red are tracts where there is more grantmaking than relative instability.

2.3 Social vulnerability & grantmaking maps

2.4 Social vulnerability & grantmaking overlay

Again, Census tracts visualized in darker blue, are those where relative social vulnerability is greater than relative grantmaking. Shades of white are those where social vulnerability and grantmaking are properly aligned. Darker shades of red are tracts where there is more relative grantmaking than relative instability.

3. Housing

With respect to housing in The Delaware Valley, the average tract-level median rent is $1,052.17. The average rate of owner occupied housing is 66%. In 45% of tracts, at least half of households are rent burdened.

The maps below provide a detailed look at housing in the region.

3.1 Where do rent burdened households live?

Rent burdened households are those spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The map below visualizes percent rent burdened by tract.

3.2 Where are owner-occupied households concentrated?

3.3 How does rent vary across the region?

3.4 Where do renters rely on alternative travel mode choices?

3.5 Regional transit deserts

The map below visualizes the distance in miles from each tract to its nearest transit station.

4. Demographics

In The Delaware Valley, the average median household income is $73,562.33 and the average population density is 8,007 people per square mile. The mean poverty rate is 14%, with the highest poverty rate, areawide, being 82%.

Below a host of demographic-related maps are presented.

4.1 How does population density vary across the region?

4.2 Median Household Income

4.3 Poverty-rate across the region

4.4 Percent non-white households

4.5 Individuals aged 65+

4.6 Individuals aged under 18

4.7 Map of Distance to houses of worship

The map below visualizes the distance in miles from each tract to its nearest house of worship.

5. Employment

In this section, labor force participation is visualized along with recent changes that have resulted from COVID-19.

The average rate of individuals who have attained at least a high school degree in The Delaware Valley is 89%. In 2015, the Census estimated that 2,690,347 individuals were employed, which represents 77% of adults. As of mid May, 2020, the estimated average tract-level unemployment rate was 7% meaning an estimated 184,066 fewer individuals were employed at that time.

The geography of COVID-19 unemployment is explored further below.

5.1 Education attainment: High school degree and higher

5.2 Total labor force

5.3 Where do workers live by sector (2018)

Using Census LODES data, the below set of maps show where regional workers in select sectors live.

5.4 Estimated unemployment by sector

Combining tract-level employment counts from Census LODES with tract-level unemployment estimates from the BLS allows estimates for where employment-vulnerable workers live in the region.

6. Food Insecurity

In The Delaware Valley, the average rate of households receiving food assistance is 14%. The average rate of households with children receiving food assistance areawide is 6%.

Below, food insecurity and food access in the region is mapped.

6.1 Where do households receive food assistance?

6.2 Where do households with children receive food assistance?

6.3 Regional food deserts

The map below visualizes the rate of low income households who live more than 1/2 mile from a supermarket in urban areas and more than 10 miles in rural areas.

7. Child Welfare

In this section, child welfare indicators are presented.

7.1 Children under age 6

7.2 Access to childcare

The map below visualizes the distance in miles from each tract to its nearest childcare center.

8. Health

The average health insured rate for households in The Delaware Valley is 98%. The average rate of disabled residents is 13%.

Several health-related indicators are mapped below.

8.1 Rate of health insured

8.2 Rate of disabled

8.3 Emergency health access

The map below shows the distance in miles from each Census tract to its nearest emergency care facility.

8.4 Access to urgent care

The map below measures distance in miles from each Census tract to its nearest urgent care facility.



This work was supported by a coalition philanthropic organizations in the Delaware Valley Region and created by the below entities.


  1. The maps throughout this report visualize geolocated grants where the service area was known. All other analytics and figures include both these geolocated grants as well as grants where only the county was known.

  2. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Census LODES; created by applying Urban Institute neighborhood job loss estimates to Census LODES data. More information here